


Silent Horizon

by midgetGoddess



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Hellraiser & Related Fandoms
Genre: Depression, F/F, F/M, Gen, Loneliness, M/M, Manipulative Tadashi, Multi, Not A Fix-It, Not Pleasant, Other, Slow Build, Sorry Not Sorry, Yandere Tadashi, dark themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-12-10
Packaged: 2018-03-18 14:07:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3572444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midgetGoddess/pseuds/midgetGoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"They say a story is done when the villain is caught, and the day is won."</p><p>It all ends with a boy and a puzzle box...though maybe it's more a beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written by my lovely Feisty_Kitten. As she doesn't have an AO3 account I'm posting it in her stead as she works on this piece.

# Prologue

A beginning.

A Prologue.

Perhaps even an ending in a beginning.

They say a story is done when the villain is caught, and the day is won. They think that the hero returns home, crowned in glory and victorious. So should the hero not be content, with his newly earned laurel to rest about his crowned skull? Should not the hero rejoice in his adulations, the fame heaped about his feat like so much treasure of gold?

Ah.

There lies the crux.

The hero has lost, as much as he has won. The villain has left with everything but his freedom and his suffering in his victory.

So how does one, tell the story of the hero that chose to be not a hero.

Rather the Hero is Hiro and how a wish and a puzzle box changed the world.

For better or for worse has fates spindle been spun and the thread cut, and can only be determined by you, readers dear. Though I have no doubt, that some shall say good and some shall say bad and all shall agree it’s a tale full of intrigue.

So let us turn back Father Times’ clock. To a young boy, in the city of Sanfransokyo, whose greatest heart’s desire is to have that which was stolen returned…


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’s been perfectly happy! Just….fine.
> 
> His thoughts roll over to his brother again.

# Chapter 1

 

Hiro didn’t know how it came to be in his hands. Rather he did, but he wasn’t sure why he took it. The Sanfransokyo student had taken a little time on his lunch to wander around little Sokyo. Something had drawn him into a little shop, the sound of bells. Something like a tune box playing a lullaby drifting out of the door propped open to bring some air into the shop on the hot humid day.

He’d left with a puzzle box, the faint sound of bells, and an obscure lullaby. Even the shop keepers odd behavior was set aside in lieu of his fascinating find.  
”It belongs to me huh…Well I did buy it. I don’t see any slots. Any slides or clips or clasp…” He drums his fingers, running his nails over the metal; admiring the quality of it.

His thoughts are consumed by it.

Even when working on Baymax, and other projects, he finds himself fiddling with it. Hiro turning it over and over in his palms even if he makes no progress on it, which he gripes about to the group. Fred strangely offers the best insight after being the last to briefly examine it later in the day when he brought pizza.  
”…Maybe you outta think of other things. I mean. Puzzles man. They get themselves solved, but only when you’re not thinking about the puzzle.”

Hiro takes the idea to heart. Taking it home with him Hiro lies back in bed after a dinner with Aunt Cassie. There’s still a gaping hole there, where there should be a third person. His fingers begin to slide over the cube as he thinks about that hole. Tadashi would have loved the puzzle. HE loved challenges. He thinks he’d have been proud; Baymax has been updated three times, not to mention he’s updated all their armor systems. Their projects are all going so well. Gogo has almost solved her magnetic bikes…She’d joked that Tadashi had wanted to race her. Wasabi lamented about his lack of organizational partner, even if it was half joke half serious melancholy. Even Fred would sometimes lapse into quiet contemplation.

He misses Tadashi…

He’d given anything to see his face one more time.

Hiro so lost in thought misses the puzzle slotting one piece into place.

He falls asleep to the sounds of gently playing bells. The tune he heard just a bit more complex than the one that had lured him into the shop.

-

Hiro wakes up feeling so much more energized.

He puts the Puzzle into his pack and wishes his Aunt a good morning; grabbing a piece of toast on the way out the door and grabbing the streetcar as it passes. He settles back, finishing his breakfast, chin in his palm. Last night he’d dreamed of a familiar white smile, and dark eyes.

He hadn’t felt any of the guilt either normally associated dreaming about Tadashi. So he rides the high throughout the day, not even considering his find until Honey inquires about it.  
”So Hiro make any progress on your puzzle?” Everyone crowds in when Fred drops sandwiches and flops right by him grinning.  
”Show show shoooow.”

Hiro fetches his bag, digging it out.  
”Oh…I didn’t realize.” There was the piece starting some sort of…shape on the face of the box. He holds it out, feeling some dis-ease as they pass it back and forth murmuring quietly. Attempting to move parts forward, to move that piece back; they fuss over it top and bottom.

It’s passed back to him with a general consensus, Wasabi shaking his head.  
”We don’t know how you did it. But you be careful with that strange thing.” He points at him and Hiro nods his head, tucking his Box to his chest,” Yea, I will.” He feels so much better with it back in his possession.

When he gets home later, fiddling with it Baymax makes a soft observation. Hiro’s not sure how to feel. Rolling on his side to stare at the gleaming dark metal.  
“You seem happy today Hiro. It is nice to see your endorphin levels higher then they have been.”

They’d made leaps on his personality chip, without deviating from his original purpose. He also articulated in a way that was more…human. He begins to fuss with the cube, wondering what he means by that. He’s been perfectly happy! Just….fine.

His thoughts roll over to his brother again. He missed him sure. But he was doing what Tadashi would be happy about. He was making a difference. Krei had happily contacted him to see about producing a line of Personal healthcare robots. So they were in production stage now, hospitals and clinics were getting them first. They even had some at the school. All costumzied just a bit, with different voice modulators, but all with the same care and attention that Baymax had first been made with.

He wished Tadashi had been here to see it.

He falls asleep with damp cheeks, the melody he was dreaming of lulling him under. Fire with that white smile, and gentle hands petting his hair back.  
”Don’t worry Hiro. It’ll be okay.”

A second part of the puzzle slips neatly into place as he dreams.

Hiro wakes up, and leaves the puzzle behind for the day. Unsure why but he just feels the absolute need to…let it sit. He doesn’t want the others questioning him on it either. When they ask he tells them that he’s getting bored with it. It hasn’t done anything special.

Given his attention span prefers something with progress they accept it. Even if Wasabi insists he spends some time with the older male. The two of them fussing over a new style of containment field for his lasers. It was a really fun time. Hiro’s mind completely diverted.

Until he gets home and its dark in the house.

His Aunt already turned in.

Leaving him to reheat leftovers.

He wished she’d been awake. HE didn’t like being alone too much these days. Not after saving an entire city with a strange group of friends, realizing he’d lost Tadashi to one man’s /greed/. His fucking…Hiro takes a deep wet breath.

He’s almost fifteen and he’s lost so much, suffered so much. Why, why him?

Hiro’s feet sound too loud on the steps, in the room he shared. HE was aware of Baymax watching quietly from around the rice screen when he lies down. Not protesting when the bot brings him the puzzle, and wiggles to sit on the bed. He rests his cheek on the soft leg, the material warming against him. Lulling him a bit as he twists it in his palms.  
”…I want my brother.” It’s a plaintive request.

Baymax dutifully replays the clips kept safely inside his chip. The sounds of his brother letting him close his eyes. Fingers slipping over metal, nicking the tips of his fingers, bleeding into the edges of the box; the lullaby is so much stronger. He’s held in long strong arms, tucking him closer.  
”I miss you too bonehead…just a little longer.”

Hiro ignores the fact his skin is so cold compared to what it used to be. Burrowing into it. Into him. Absolutely needing him, in any shape.

-

Miles away, in an abandoned facility, moonlight filters into the holes left behind.

A ruined machine creaks in the wide empty space. Computers flicker, twitching, numbers and power undulating over screens. Metal ticks into place like blood following the grooves of a puzzle box. Like the wishes of a young teenage boy reaching places that have no business listening to such ardent sweet tormented desire. Need. Prayer like in its soul felt hurts.

The metal clicks, and groans as if in pain; twisting in some places in tormented looking arches.

Then goes quiet, leaving an unearthly discontentment to the air.

For what has once been opened, cannot now be closed. All doors go two ways; though the entrance has been devoured upon itself, that connection was left lingering.

An exit is so much easier to deal with after all, then producing that first damning red thread.

The time has not yet come.

There is faith that it will come though.

All things succumb in the end.

Innocence is a thing that is rare, and sweet; nurturing it to the necessary level and ideals…well. That’s the challenge now isn’t it?

The Silence settles more, clearing enough that birds on the island slowly begin piping even if it’s warning of predators. Of blood and danger and things that lurk quietly in the dark with sharp teeth and sharper eyes.

Oh yes.

It has time.

Such a gem can never be left unattended again.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eyes watering for reasons other than upset and anger.
> 
> He closes them again, curling around the box...

# Chapter 2

 

Hiro finds himself juggling too many duties over the next few weeks to look at his puzzle. He’d been so upset when he’d found the blood stains on it, waking from that unsettling dream. Baymax had recommended Hiro leave it alone.

He had not found a reason to argue with his AI.

So it had gone on a shelf to sit for a time.

He pretended that he did not hear the melody box. The slightly discordant chime like notes of it; they make his skin crawl and the hairs on his nape rise.

Especially after he well and truly realizes it’s there.

It is present.

But no one else can hear it but him.

Though sometimes over the course of the three weeks he finds Baymax staring at it, the lines of the AI robot displeased…Though Baymax never says anything about it after that initial observation. He has a feeling his AI knows, or suspects something, but doesn’t kow enough to want to bother him with it.

So he goes about his days, and presents an end of term project with the others.

It’s the new line of Baymax –named something different because there is only /one/ Baymax-, to the public at an expo. Krei already has the holds on it, with Hiro getting forty percent of the take on sales, royalties, advertisement takes etc.

It’s a good time to be had over all.

With his birthday happening three days after the ceremonies, so they simply take it on the road right after they’ve accepted awards and accolades. The party is long, its loud, the older college students get a little snockered, Hiro gets a few drinks in safely…and it’s so easy to not think of anything then the next Karaoke bar. The next place to party and celebrate being young and free and so damn smart.

So fucking smart.

He drops into bed, staring at the box gleaming in the barely there light of a crescent moon. Baymax charging in his station.

If he’s so fucking smart how did he lose so much?

Tadashi had been the better one of the two of them.

Hiro had just wanted to keep his brother close and make enough money to get them through life comfortably, of course to help out their Aunt too. Bot fighting had been ridiculously easy, conning grown men into underestimating him until he could rip their very livelihoods to shreds under his bots maliciously eager joints. He closes his eyes, exhaling.

Fingers trembling a bit until he buries them in his pillows, grasping at them as tears prick his eyes again.

He curls up on himself, not saying the words that would draw Baymax back out to sooth him.

The fourteen year old rises after some time, unable to rest in his own bed so he goes to another. He shuffles, sliding under pristine covers, puzzle in hand. He drags his nails over it, staring into the complex pattern emerging on the sides. Hiro pets the lines, raises and dips and all, memorizing the swirls.

Or trying to.

Staring at it too long and they seem to breathe and move just a little.

Eyes watering for reasons other than upset and anger.

He closes them again, curling around the box and burying his face in his brother’s pillow.

It’s too late to contemplate what a sleepy mind creates.

His dreams have a deep copper note to them, wood ash and something sickly sweet. Cool fingers cradling his cheek and jaw, coaxing him into a tall hard body. Soothing his hair away from a fevered forehead,” Rest…you delve so deeply so quickly for one so young. Rest. Rest and contemplate the greater ends of this pitiable universe in all its petty ideologies. You will change them all now won’t you?”

Hiro wakes up smiling, cold and hot all at once. He sets the box on the headboard of his brother’s bed and rouses Baymax excitedly. Its summer break! That means time outdoors spent flying, and nothing to stop him from doing just that for an entire day and drawing his friends out with him.

The dried blood on the box has set into the lines. A face and a half complete on the puzzle box, blood shining wetly in its grooves, giving the lines on it a faintly shimmering appearance of false life.

-

The new moons velvety black dusk is welcome on that tiny island.

The entire structure is closed off again, so even if the moon had been full no natural light, would pierce its heart.

Metal has been dragged into shapes that would make grown men weep to follow.

Red emergency lights are the only source of illumination. The computers are slag, melted, useless.

There is no point in their continued presence, taking valuable energy.

The metal arches into itself weakly, binding then falling away.

The center of the structure pulses and the metal bends further on itself with a shriek.

It binds together on the next arching pass. The red bird on the metal is still visible in places; quietly watching on as materials are warped and manipulated by a giant’s unseen hand. Perhaps a god’s unseen hand is more an apt description with how careless yet how artful.

Even if the midst of greatest chaos, truly there is a pattern to the madness, a method to the mind of the warped and chattering insanity that comes from a depth of knowledge in any being.

The thread is so much stronger.

It plucks at it.

Pale hands guiding where time has no place in plans and ideals, where an eternity can be a minute and a minute can be eternity. All things have time to end and begin and end again in a loop of fire and passion and pain.

Oh pain.

Still it resonates.

Even in the midst of false joy and brightness the pain will show.

It will guide them all to a new place. A new era even, in their explorations of the wider universe.

One is never too old, to learn new tricks.

The room does not stay quiet now, metal inexorably forced into hellish symbols under watchful thoughts.

Time above the room flies away, into blue and grey and black where uncaring suns sparkle as stars gleaming diamond brilliance; to places where the body and mind are tuned to a different beauty.

Where loyalty and devotion and commitment are tried and tested.

A place where the rewards always come to those who wait, even if the idea and thought of the reward is changed in the process of earning it. The one giving it is a master of puppetry, and the one receiving it has no idea they’re even working to earn it.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ”…Stupid. Evil boxes. I mean come on.” He scoffs softly, ”Sounds like something out of a bad B flick horror movie…”

# Chapter 3

 

Hiro finds himself growing further agitated as summer winds on. It is too hot, the weatherman talking endlessly about heatwaves and drought conditions. It’s not even a bad agitation, he’s just restless. He gets out and flies a lot with Baymax to the floating koi fans that hover over the city almost sullen looking in the heat waves. Skimming through and over the bay to feel the sea spray in his face when Baymax turns just enough to drag a metal covered hand in the ocean.  


There are no more unsettling dreams he cannot remember. He sleeps fantastically even, though his eyes belay his thoughts. He has dark bags under them that he hides by swiping a thing of Gogo’s face powder off of her and with the magic of online tutorials learns how to apply it. Hey presto, no more raccoon face.  


The puzzle is beautiful as those moments with his friends that occur as the month progresses. Its copper or gilded surface –he can’t get a clear reading on any of the materials and neither can anyone else- is gleaming more than usual. Three of the six faces are complete, and he turns it over in his palms every night, pouting at the sight of the old blood on one side in the faint grooves but there’s nothing to be done about it.  


The fourth face only clicks together when he gets into an argument with Honey-lemon a month and a half into break, two months that he’s had the box total. She’s taken a dislike to the box recently, something that is surprising coming from the often saccharine young woman. She waves an article like she’s passing down a benediction,

”Hiro I’m starting to worry you’re not coping healthily and I think that box has something to do with it.” The blonde taps the paper onto a work bench.  


No school, but they still have access to the labs for further work on their ongoing projects.  


Everyone is gathered around the bench with their preferred beverages and Hiro nurses a cola as he stares at Honey like she’s the one who’s lost her mind,

”Say what again?” Fred has inched in to examine the paper,

”…Is this French? How do you even say this? Le- Leeee- Leemarchand?” He extends the beginning of the name comically, squinting,

”Lemarchand Configuration? That’s a fancy name for a toy.” Honey turns and lightly swats him with the paper, smiling briefly, then turning serious faced to the group,

”It’s not a toy; at least not according to my research. I kept wondering why I couldn’t even get a chemical bead on the wood or metal components in the box and did some digging….” She turns nervous now and pushes the paper across the table,

”Here just…read it.”

Hiro takes it with an amused snort, thinking she’s tugging his leg. The picture from the archeological society kills some of his amusement. More so when he reads the article, that looks eerily similar to his box, though the markings on it are fundamentally different. The article drones on about ‘dark occultism’ and ‘superstitious idealogies’. The worst part Honey has underlined ‘the use of human remains makes the box hard to date, the fat rubbed into the wood and metal giving it an odd chemical component that none of our more scientific contemporaries can explain.’ Hiro looks up slowly from the article,

”What sort of nonsense is this?”  


Honey twists her hands together,

”it’s a highly respectable and accredited article from an equally reputable source Hiro. All our tests? The general design even? I think you should get rid of it. We’ve faced a man who used nano-technology to try and kill a lot of people, who’s to say this isn’t just a scientific oddity that history has yet to figure out? The article even reports that owners of several similar though as of yet undocumented as to how they came to own the boxes, have all died rather terribly with no evidence as to how.” She reaches over the table to touch his hands,

”I’m worried Hiro. I don’t like it. If it is made the way the one in the article is it’s an awful awful thing to exist and I’m not sure it’s safe for you to own!”  


Hiro jerks his hands away like she’s burnt him, eyes narrowed and teeth gritted,

”Don’t I get a say in what’s right or wrong? It only has a vague resemblance to my puzzle!” A lot more than a vague one but he refuses to believe this. This is genuine one hundred percent bull shit right here. The other older people around the table are reading the article and giving him worried looks and exchanging that _expression_. The one he’s seen on other adults all his life, all of them save Tadashi. The ‘I know better than you so we’re gonna step in’; they were going get a very nasty surprise. The only people he’d ever let use that face on him was his Aunt and his brother.  


Hiro takes the article and crumples it viciously despite their shouting, turns and calmly lobs it across the room. The lasers, running for stability testing, shred it more neatly then any black level document shredder can. Hiro turns to the others, shoulders taut, eyes blazing and Honey shrinks back. Unaware that he’s projecting a presence that is far more threatening than is typical a boy of his size and age. He plants his palms, voice low.

”I am not going to argue with you on this Honey. It’s my box. I’m gonna solve it. You are all getting worked up over nothing! We’re scientists, we don’t believe in magic. The reason we can’t scan it right cause of a resin or something, if it was made with…human fat it’d have worn off with age or something! And the article says the guy made ONE box. Mine doesn’t look anything like that!“ He stabs a finger at the picture.

”They have the only known one locked up in some museum vault apparently. We’d know if it was stolen.”  


Honey shrinks further in her seat, eyes wide and shiny at the edges. Everyone else is staring as well. Wasabi leans in to touch his arm.

”Hiro we’re just trying to look out for you.” He yanks his arm free, hissing softly.

“And that’s where I’m having a problem. I’m not just some kid! You’re treating me like a stupid child!” He shoves away from the bench and stands.

”I’m going home. Good night.”  


Their voices rise in a cacophony and he yells again.

“I said good night!” He darts away with his bag before they can stop him. Slamming out of the building and tearing towards the mini scooter he’d built. He’s gone before they can get out the building.  


When he gets home an exhausting hour later after catching a late night car he growls his way up to the attic room. Dropping onto the bed and grabbing the puzzle box, ignoring Baymax’s worried voice until the bot gives up with a ‘sigh’ and sits on the bed. The bot gently patting his dark hair until Hiro relaxes.

“…Stupid. Evil boxes. I mean come on.” He scoffs softly.

”Sounds like something out of a bad B flick horror movie…” His thumb sweeps over the shiny surface that refuses to smudge no matter how much he touches it. The melody is so pretty and soothing. It starts up when he touches it, which is far too advanced for some ancient hunk of wood and made up horror story. He relaxes further, murmuring as he fusses with a side.

”You’re just a toy. A nifty one, and a challenge and I like challenges. It’s nice to have something to work on y’know Baymax? Something I didn’t have to build myself to give myself something to do.”  


The healthcare AI doesn’t say anything, radiating heat, simply existing. There was little in his medical directives as to what to do. He was Hiro’s personal healthcare provider and the box did not register as a health hazard, Hiro got out and did things with his companions and ate with his aunt and did all things a boy his age should reasonably do. So guilt and ptsd and coping were not impaired…He is silent because he cannot truly do anything but be here and be his companion too. Hiro had after all, rebuilt Baymax from nothing, and given him a great deal of room to grow.  


Hiro stares into the box, twisting the pieces, pushing and rubbing as he whispers.

“You’d know how to smooth all this over Tadashi. You were always better with words than me bro.” The pieces slowly connect and the melody changes to something more complex than a lullaby. Hiro can’t place it by ear but he finds it enthralling, falling asleep all the same with it and Baymax. One hand curled as possessively over the robot’s polymaterial leg as much as the other is tight as an iron clasp on the puzzle.  
  
-  


The music chimes endlessly, Baymax sitting recording it as it plays, filing it away with the other chords he has learned from the box. He does not say anything about the faint energy emissions. Something keeps him from doing so. A part of him ‘worries’ as to this glitch but something else constantly interferes with that part too. Sometimes, it feels like Tadashi’s log code has been used to tamper with his coding but Tadashi is here but not. It is therefore quantifiably impossible. It is perhaps, the result of bringing up the recordings of Tadashi so often for Hiro recently. He shall log it in his databanks and tell Hiro some other time.  
  
Hiro is after all as smart as his brother. He will be able to fix any glitches that occur, now or ever.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the morning nurse enters the room and the man within grins at her she starts, dropping the medications. He just laughs and states softly.
> 
> ”I know who I am!”

# Chapter 5

 

Hiro distances himself from his friends for a time. He’s stinging over the perceived betrayal. Instead he helps out his Aunt in her shop, charming the customers and happily pocketing tips. He’s saving up for somethings and it’d be nice to not have to ask Aunt Cass for it. Baymax wanders between the garage, checking up on Hiro and his Aunt and the rooms upstairs. There’s not a lot for a crime fighting-Health Bot to do when no one’s getting injured or threatened.  
  
The odd log on error keeps occurring. It is a glitch that can be fixed. He does not understand why he’s failed to tell Hiro yet. He shuts off his awareness of the error, and turns his attention to other matters. Mostly, Hiro watching, recording now and then to make sure his optics are calibrated adequately to spot signs of injury or upset. Using a scan is apparently too invasive for certain things or so Hiro had stated numerous times. He stores the recordings in their own file.

-

 

The last month of vacation drags into Sanfransokyo like a living, fire breathing dragon; hot dry and cruel. Hiro finds himself lounging in as little clothing as he can get away with near open windows and fans. His aunt has had to buy poor Mochi a special cooling blanket with a gel insert. Baymax has been upgraded with a cooling function, he’d had to turn him off to add the coolant coils in alongside the heating ones but it was so worth it. Baymax’s hands were just shy of icy, especially compared to the summer heat, when they touched his cheeks or forehead to assist in cooling him some.  
  
Ice clinked in his glass of lemonade as he lounged on the window seat of his side of the room. Baymax was linked to the internet, he could hear the near inaudible whir of his processors downloading things. With the chrr of bugs outside his window, the muted noise of cars, it was idyllic. There was a lack of foot traffic though. People had been warned to stay inside.  
  
He twists the puzzle over in his hands slowly. Eyes hooded as he regards its glossy surface.

He’d invented two new mini battle bots out of sheer boredom. The two weeks he’d spent away from his friends. They’d caught up to him on the third week of their second month off from school and Honey had profusely apologized for upsetting him. They’d all stated that, but pressed that they just worried about him. Hiro is fairly sure he’d managed to placate their fears. He hadn’t taken the puzzle anywhere in their eyesight which seemed to make them happy.  
  
He’s down to one last surface. He’d managed to get the fifth one to slot in the last day of the second month….Now he’s stuck. The pieces don’t even wiggle under prying or pushing or petting. He exhaled and drops his head onto Baymax’s shoulder. A hand rising up to pat awkwardly but kindly at his face or hair; he’s not sure which he aimed for but hey it’s the thought that counts.  
  
Hiro smiles faintly, relaxing. He turns the cube where a stray shaft of sunlight can hit it. The filigree lighting up with fiery hues, the dark wood seems a rich carmine infused chocolate color. It’s in a word, perfect. The angles are almost too sharp for an item of its type, straight edged and unsullied by time or Hiro’s hands at all. He’s cut his finger tips on the metal and wood as the pieces moved a few times since the first. The blood isn’t as noticeable when he looks at it like this.

He sighs softly, dark eyes closing. Tadashi would have liked it. For all his sciencing his brother had a secret love for weird stuff. His interest in health, and his health bots, came from reading historical accounts of old medical practices leading up to the advent of modern medicine. It had included reading obscure and sometimes freaky things about herbs and witchcraft. Tadashi had explained that witches were simply women who had the knowledge passed down of plants and their effects. Not unlike native tribes who knew which plants were edible, which could help with pain and the like.

Hiro hadn’t really paid much attention to it when he got on a non-tech related ramble. He regretted not listening to his recounted stories more. If he had another day he’d happily listen to his brother go on about how medieval torture and grave robbing had advanced medicine in vague but helpful ways. People had learned where and how hard and deep they could cut and along what bones and tendons.  
  
Anatomy had evolved from men stealing corpses to be cut apart to be studied. Often they’d died for their crimes but their notes would become the foundation of the knowledge of human physiology. Hiro at least remembered that much. His eyes open again, the cube twirling slowly between his fingers as he considered the glow of the metal. He wondered if this is what Tadashi saw before he died. They hadn’t recovered a body from the blown out building. The cops had merely figured he’d been too close to the explosion.

Which seemed odd, Hiro didn’t think that bone could be ashed so easily. He should ask Baymax while he’s thinking of it. The thought drifts and then it’s discarded. No point. He taps his fingers on the uncompleted side.

“I’m going to figure you out and then you’re going on my shelf to be admired. You’re the trickiest thing ever. You should feel proud of yourself little puzzle.”  
  
He turned, setting the box on the floor and wraps his arms around a pillow with a yawn. Rubbing at his eyes he muttered down at it.

“You’re not bad luck. I think you’re the best thing I’ve had to do in a while. sans Baymax. But Baymax is always gonna be the exception.” He talked to his bots all the time and the Puzzle had been his long enough he was attached to the tune playing toy.  
  
He nuzzled into the back of Baymax, fingers of one hand eventually dropping to be splayed over the box. The day wanes into a bright night, the robot seated on the floor is the only one aware when the box pieces click one at a time on their own.  
  
-

A mass of heaving metal is there to witness a spark of devouring flame. It eats up the inside of the stone, marking what little is visible black with ash. Metal and plastic melts from the long useless computers and monitors. The metal coils in on itself like its giving one last effort to contain what is happening before it gives, unfolded like a parody of a blossom. A figure shivers in the middle of it, eyes unseeing as of yet.

The eyes slip from black to brilliant amber to a softer brown, pale fingers reach down to splay roughly against the cheek of the figure. Turning the head side to side like they are simply a doll to be manhandled; they rake their digits over scars that trace along the strong neck and back of its head. The hair has been burnt along the sides as well but the top is a shock of pitch black too long singed strands.  
  
Another hand is held out and they are rewarded with a pair of rusted but razor sharp scissors. The hands work to carefully trim the remaining hair to where it falls over one eye, the scissors handed back. They pat the handsome face, a deep voice purring as a bell tolls deeply.

“You have a job to do young one…bring us our little angel and this world will be yours and his to play in.”  
  
The eyes twitch and slowly the figure blinks, eyes locking briefly on pitch black before they close.  
  
-  
  
A burn patient in a hospital dies in the night without anyone ever being aware. They think the young man that is in the bed has been there all along, unidentified because of the extensive burn damage to him. Poor boy had been found about ten miles from the Sanfransokyo University. Unable to find any identification on him they’d tended to the comatose young man for months.  
  
When the morning nurse enters the room and the man within grins at her she starts, dropping the medications. He just laughs and states softly.

”I know who I am!” Brown eyes brilliant with delight, smile wide despite the stretch the scars must put on his face. His fingers twitching faintly against the covers; the nurse is thankful the poor boy had been spared losing his extremities even if his arms and legs are covered in scarring that looks like a pattern of flames themselves.  
  
It’s an over joyed nurse, that is all too happy –with permission from her floor nurse- to call the Lucky Cat Café to ask if they’d like to come in and confirm the identity of one Tadashi Hamada.  
  
No one sees the smile twist harder at the edges and the blackness that over takes brown. It is so very good, to be home. He can’t _wait_ to see his little brother again, his very own Hiro.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiro feels a smug satisfaction when the doctor nearly scurries from the room. He presses closer to Dashi who embraces him tightly to his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is more of a continuation of the last than it's own, but it didn't feel right putting them together.

# Chapter 6

 

Hiro is in a daze.  
  
It’s hard to believe it. Those dark amber eyes, so like his own, that faint smile as he holds his crying Aunt where she’s leaned over him lying in the bed. There are so many scars. Places where skin has twisted and tightened unnaturally; forcing his smile to be crooked somewhat on one side. It drags at his brow just enough to make his smile almost bewildered or irritated but its Tadashi.  
  
His brother has never really done pissy, just upset.  
  
Hiro strides slowly towards the bed, throat closing up. His hands slowly curling over the edge of the bed itself and Aunt Cass is drawing back enough to let Hiro and Tadashi see each other better. A scarred palm reaches out, and firmly ruffles his messy hair. The young man’s heart flips in his chest as the husky voice of his sibling mutters.  
“Bonehead…didn’t I say I’d never leave you behind?” Hiro isn’t aware of himself flinging into Tadashi’s arms, only realizing when fabric under his cheek is soaked with his tears of pain and happiness.  
  
The big hand continues to ruffle his hair and he calms somewhat, breathe hitching in his chest as his Aunt and Tadashi talk to a doctor about discharge and medications and complications. Hiro pipes up determinedly.  
“We have one of the live in Nursing Bots. Baymax can help us look after my brother.” He twists, something ugly burning in his chest at the idea that the doctor wants Tadashi to stay in the hospital even longer.  
  
No! It’s not fair, he’s thought Tadashi was gone forever. His brother is coming home, and he’s coming home today! His eyes bore into the doctor’s and the man flinches at the sudden intensity from both of the young men on the bed. Their Aunt seemingly unaware, as she’s empathetically agreeing with her younger nephew.  
“He’s coming home. I assure you we’re perfectly capable of taking care of him from here on out and if a complication happens we do, as he said, have a Baymax. He can alert us to take him to our family doctor or the local emergency department.”  
  
Hiro feels a smug satisfaction when the doctor nearly scurries from the room. He presses closer to Dashi who embraces him tightly to his chest. Hiro resting his head against the firm line, hearing the rise and fall of his lungs, the steady strong drum of his heart; and Hiro has a moment of wonder. This is here, this is real…He can’t wait to tell his big brother about everything he’s done since he’s been in his coma.  
  
-  
  
Tadashi is aware of Hiro falling asleep with his head on his chest. Poor kid, talk about stress and excitement. He listens vaguely to his Aunt’s prattle, which…well that’s rude. He does love his aunt, she’s a good woman. She took them in when she didn’t have to, raised her sister’s two kids as much like her own as she could while keeping their parents alive for them. He strokes Hiro’s hair slowly, leaning back into his pillows further. Tadashi allowing his aunt to deal with the paperwork and tedium of getting him out of the hospital.  
  
It’s just, she’s great; yea sure. But his aunt is not Hiro, who is his whole world now. The scars burn up the back of his neck and he grimaces faintly, trying not to shudder at the reminder. Hiro is going to be everyone’s world. He’s going to define this new age Tadashi has been left in charge of protecting, guiding to fruition until such time as the Old Ones can get here.  
  
Tadashi idly muses as his Aunt signs paperwork, he’ll have to arrange a nice quiet out for her. He doesn’t think his Aunt would fit into the new world. Hiro is a bright, new light that can be molded without breaking entirely. Aunt Cass would shatter, not prettily, not sweetly. She’d simply become so much flesh and blood and viscera in the new world. No, Tadashi smiles as his Aunt kisses his temple and he thanks her softly as she leaves the room to hand the papers over; his Aunt will have to go before the end. It’s the best thank you he can give her for taking care of Hiro and himself all these years.  
  
-  
  
Hiro lets a day go by, one full day of Tadashi to himself and Aunt Cass. Spending time showing him the modifications to Baymax, the armors he created. All his programs and telling him regretfully about who really started that fire. Who had almost killed Tadashi and Krei and all of them. Hiro had launched into an absorbed discussion about the portal between dimensions. The strange sunset colored place between their world and who knows what. Tadashi listened to it all keenly, asked questions and hugged Hiro. Crowing his praise and making his heart ache with how good it was to have him back.  
  
Baymax appearing when Hiro squeals an ow when his brother noogies him before carefully hanging him upside down his back. They start laughing further when Baymax bops them both on their heads, and tells them that horseplay is dangerous before the robot trips on the cat and lies their blinking his shutters.  
  
He texts his friends to meet him at the Lucky Cat the day after that though. Four days including that late night call, and he is ready with a camera when they all stumble in arguing about what might be the matter only for Honey to squeal like a yuki-onna at the sight of Tadashi. Wasabi startles so hard he trips and knocks over three tables, chairs landing on him. Gogo’s gum actually pops in such a way that it sticks to her cheek and she’s picking it free, staring at Tadashi like he’s a ghost. Honey having gone from squealing to hugging him like a woman possessed as Fred declares in the background that automatically makes Tadashi a hero! Every hero has an awesome back story and phoenix like revival! Wasabi finally manage to get up with some help from Fred and Gogo, and he smiles as he snaps a photo of all of them in a group hug. His Aunt shooing him into the hug and snaps a picture, cooing.  
“Its…its perfect. I am going to get this framed! It’s the happiest day since Hiro got into college.”  
  
It was the happiest day anyone would ever remember having after.  
  
  



	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Madness is only a type of genius that a smaller mind can not comprehend yet..."

# Chapter 7

 

Tadashi is exhausted. He forgot how fragile, how frail a purely human frame could be. He was still adjusting, to life, to having blood instead of oil and poison in his veins. It was so…discomforting. He was lucky his angels had not seen fit to take all of his gifts away to return him to Hiro though. He makes sure his brother is tucked carefully away, Baymax is charging in his station. His Aunt slumbers a floor down, he can almost taste all their little dreams.

So sweet, so soft and warm.

Dashi laughs softly, kissing his brother’s brow before he pads slowly out of the room. Silent as a ghost, eyes pitch black as he fixes his mind on the one who had led to beginning of the ultimate goal. His brother’s life work and Dashi’s pride and joy, their future; a future that all would either revile or rejoice within. Weakness and vanity would be purged from the world and pain and suffering would finally be realized as the true path to happiness and beauty.  
  
Tadashi walks slowly, but his feet find him at the psychiatric ward of the prison miles out of town. Slowly for himself is still too fast for but the most keen human eye to spy. Dogs had of course, bespoiled his approach and cats snarled from shadowed corners. Night time predators slinking to their holes and prey gone still with terror; tonight was not a night to be awake and moving. The scant crescent moon is covered by a thick bank of clouds, and the guards on duty curse softly to try and get the lights on their persons to work as Tadashi drifts past them.  
  
The nurses never even spy him, mixed amongst the guards and doctors of the ward.  
  
Finding Callaghan is as east as brushing his finger tips against a computer when a nurse has to abandon it when his presence causes some of the more unstable patients and criminals to begin crying out. Thrashing in their bonds, minds gibbering with fear of a demon come to devour their souls. Hah. As if he’d taint himself with them, Tadashi didn’t eat garbage and he never would. Neither would the Old Ones for that matter and they had trained him to have impeccable taste.  
  
The computer is worthless once he’s done with it but no one would notice the destroyed thing for some time. Not with all the commotion. He slips into the locked room where the man is curled into a corner in the pitch dark. Tadashi’s smile widens, one eye turning milky and wasted in its socket. The scars eating further into his face to not just twist his smile into a smirk but exposing the bone in a parody of a wide welcoming grin.  
“Hello Professor.”  
  
Callaghan’s resulting scream is lost as a schizophrenic two doors down screams louder. Tadashi hums under his breath as he crouches in front of the man and chuckles after the scream tapers off to harsh panting breaths.  
“You know I have to thank you. Your daughter was meant to bring the new era to light. But your presence in the room fucked it up, if you hadn’t been there, she’d have made it back safe and sound to be the anchor point in this world. But no, Hiro saved your daughter, going in and making it back awake and aware of the trip. Which, is very important by the way. The human mind has to be able to even briefly, comprehend their entire trip in and out of that between world.” His spine bows unnaturally, blood showering in a ruby mist as something even darker then the night shadows of the room slowly flexes from his back. Twisting sinuously, thousands of gleaming diamonds whispering as they slide together sharper than any blade; the tendrils comprised of millions of microbots with razor edges. The slowly encompass the two men, Callaghan shrinking further down.  
“I saw you die…this is a nightmare. You’re speaking nonsense and madness!”  
  
Tadashi feels one of his own tendrils slice under his bad eye, black blue blood oozing down the ruined skin to land in his mouth. The taste of the poison and oil makes him shiver with delight as much as the pain of cutting himself.  
“Madness is only a type of genius that a smaller mind can not comprehend yet. Sadly Professor, you will never get to the level needed to understand this. And you hurt Hiro, you hurt Hiro very very badly. Its not fair, don’t you think? You’re unmarred, safe, and your daughter is not only alive but making headway again into inter-dimensional travel and air and space travel. You might be imprisoned but they’re looking at an early release.” His face twists.  
  
An ugly expression turning his tanned skin ashy grey, his burn scars turning fresh and weeping as he hisses.  
“And you never even got charged for murder. My death, free and clear from your hands, not a drop of guilt laid on you. So I think, its time you shouldered a little burden for me hm?” The strands all turn their points at Callaghan. His skin paling to the milk white of death instead as his face clears somewhat, smile returning.  
“It won’t take me long.” The tips sink without any effort into Callaghan’s eyes, his hands and through his ribs. Twisting slowly like a lover’s fingers through hair, mindful of the man’s fragile body. Several wrap around his leg, forcing them down. His minor convulsions as his mouth hangs open on a scream so agonized no noise can even vibrate his vocal cords.  
  
Tadashi slides the blades free bringing the pale eyes of Callaghan with it. He unloop s them from his ribs, hearing the wet whistle of his lungs trying to work.  
“Don’t worry…you won’t die. But you’re going to suffer and suffer…and they’re going to think you did this to yourself. Poor Callaghan, suffering delusions of his dead student, dead because he wanted to save his beloved mentor.” Tadashi places several scalpels under Callaghn’s palms and then rises, the tendrils receding into his spine with the sound of fresh meat being cleaved before the skin closes over them, scarred but with no mark that such things lived just under his skin.  
  
Tadashi slipped out of Callaghans room, pushing an emergency button by the door as he did. He strolled out to the sounds of horror and disgust at the state of the room he’d just left. Oh yes Callaghan would live for a few years yet before some nasty infection set into his lungs from the collapse they were suffering now. Sucking chest wounds never healed neatly after all.  
  
-  
  
Krei sits up in bed, clutching the thousand count cotton sheets.  
  
His eyes dart around the room, anxiety eating at his nerves.  
  
He had not slept well since the incident at his own college with Callaghan. It drove him to nightmares, what ifs; what if those young men and women had not seen fit to keep him safe? Or to at least save someone that had not directly commited a crime. He sinks slowly back into the damp sheets, rubbing his hands over his face.  
  
Everyday he regretted what had happened, but Alice was safe now, was she not? Callaghan was serving his time in a mental ward and they had high hopes if the reports he was allowed to have were any indication. He’d even hired the ring leader of the men and women who’d saved the day. Such a brilliant young boy that Hiro Hamada, even if he drove Alistair to convulsions with his flippant sass. His lip curls a little, but at the least, his life feels more…rich with the teenager employed.  
  
The businessman rests his head again, dropping back into sleep with a relative ease. Unaware of dark eyes watching him closely.  
  


~

  
His dreams are pleasant. He’s enjoying a warm day on his balcony, all his paperwork done, no emergencies…  
“Another Drink Mr Krei?” The youthful tenor strikes heat in his body and he smirks as he sets his book down.  
“Please pet.” The slim shape dressed in the flattering red dress makes more heat curl up his spine that he can’t blame on the sunshine. It flares indecently high up trim thighs, cut low and taut about the barely there waist. He catches the boy around his hips, dragging him into his lap. The chaise lounge big enough to share and he plucks the tray with the crystal glass free.  
  
Setting them both aside to touch the milk pale thighs and kiss a droplet of brandy off impertinent lips.  
“You shouldn’t be getting into my alcohol though boy. You’re not legal drinking age yet…” That sets off an alarm in his head and black eyes peer back at him through a messy fringe, a soft ass pushing down into his lap.  
“Says the pervert who wants to fuck me in a dress.”  
  
Alistair’s dream pitches, and he feels horror but he can’t stop. His hands gripping the pale thighs harder, yanking them open around his hips. His voice curling off his tongue against his will.  
“You’re the one who begged to suck me off under my desk…I’m a generous man. I want to keep you satisfied after all.”  
  
Why is he doing this?! He’s never even entertained the briefest thoughts of of …Cool hands drop on his shoulders as the slim form writhes in his lap, exposing soft black lacen panties under the dress. His fingers feverishly tugging at them to expose the boy further as a husky baritone murmurs softly into his ear.  
“He’s a pretty thing isn’t he? And who says you didn’t entertain the idea…a young boy, with an aunt trying to make ends meet. He saved you you know. Then he had to whore out that big lovely brain of his to you to help make his college ends meet cause you and your ideas made another brilliant mind go mad with revenge. There goes his scholarship~. I bet you’re dying for this.” Krei makes a deep guttural noise as the boy in his lap reaches between his legs, the noise swallowed as he kisses the youth and forces him down onto his back on the lounge; surging up between the smooth thighs, grinding against him harder. He hunches over the boy like some beast, an animal lost to the idea of rut. The silky voice hissing into his ear.  
“You really are a pervert. You want this, you want to subjugate anyone and everyone who might be useful to your will…and if they’re pretty you want them at your beck and call for anything your dark lusting greedy heart wants.” Hiro’s lips are swollen red with bites and the young body bucks under his, amber eyes dark as he begs Alistair to be gentler and thin wrists trapped in both his hands to prevent him from ever escaping.  
  
Alistair wakes to his alarm blaring in his ear along to the shrill cries of a young man not even old enough to smoke let alone have a carnal relationship with and a mess cooling in his silken boxers. Shame eats at his nerves and he covers his face with trembling hands. He’s a monster.  
  
-  
  
Tadashi curls against Hiro before his brother wakes. Slinging an arm over his trim waist and burying his nose in the fine hairs at his nape. Tonight was so productive; he can’t wait to see what his labors bear for him, fruit or something finer. He tugs Hiro closer to him and dozes, napping, and dreaming of wide eyes looking at him with enchantment as he gently shows him the proper way to preserve the lovely blue eyes he’s brought to him as a gift.


End file.
